Users exchange video and other high bandwidth data over computer networks in various conferencing and sharing arrangements. For example, the Internet is used to facilitate the exchange of video data in video chat areas. Traditionally, high bandwidth data is provided to a predetermined server by the publisher. A consumer is directed to the predetermined system by either a searching application, which searches for location of published material, or by static locating information such as web page hyperlink information. Publishers provide data to the predetermined server while consumers continue to retrieve data from the predetermined server. When the number of publishers increases, the server performance in providing data to consumers deteriorates and eventually may become unsatisfactory for certain applications. Accordingly, there is a need for a flexible and scalable arrangement for exchanging high bandwidth data.
The video data is usually transmitted to a specific location and read from the same location or another predetermined location. When there are many parties providing and receiving video data from the same location, servers often overload, which results in slow or faulty operation. The problem is especially acute at video-chat areas where an unknown number of participants may potentially exchange video data by employing a predetermined server or servers. Thus, there is a need to ensure that servers do not overload when unexpected level of data are received and transmitted by a plurality of users associated with a high bandwidth data exchange group.